Warren: Dream 16 Bout with Omigawa Not Happening

One of the top fights slated for Dream 16
on Sept. 25 in Nagoya, Japan, was a featherweight matchup pitting
the world-ranked Michihiro
Omigawa against newly crowned Bellator Fighting Championships
featherweight titleholder Joe
Warren.

“It doesn’t look like I’m fighting in Japan,” said Warren, who
knocked out Joe Soto at
Bellator 27 in San Antonio to win his title. “It just didn’t
work out very well. We didn’t come to an agreement, and it didn’t
look like it was the best opportunity for me at that time. I
thought it was, but it just isn’t going to go down.”

Even though the fight with Omigawa did not materialize, Warren -- a
Greco-Roman wrestler who won gold medals at the 2006 Pan-Am Games,
the 2006 FILA Wrestling World Championships and the 2007 Wrestling
World Cup -- hopes to have two more fights before the end of the
year.

“We’re training hard right now,” Warren said. “I have Kit Cope in town
teaching me how to not get hit and land some punches. I need to
keep fighting and keep getting better. I probably won’t fight until
November or December, so that will give me two months to get ready,
and the best way to learn how to fight is by fighting. I’m still
young, still healthy and injury-free.”

“

I’d be a lot more comfortable
at 135, but there’s more money
for me at 145.

”

-- Joe Warren on weight
classes.

The 33-year-old Warren burst onto the MMA scene in March 2009,
debuting with a first-round technical knockout win over former
World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champion Chase Beebe.
He then outpointed Japanese star Norifumi
“Kid” Yamamoto. After a submission loss to Bibiano
Fernandes at Dream 11 in October, he posted four wins in five
months in 2010 en route to winning Bellator’s second season
featherweight tournament and take the title from Soto.

“The way I won both [world titles in wrestling and MMA] -- the hard
work I put in and the sacrifices -- makes them mean a lot,” Warren
said. “To me, there’s a special place for both of them. It’s real
exciting to win the fighting world championship the way I did with
the knockout. I hadn’t had one, and both have a special place in my
heart. Now, I get an opportunity to sit on top and train for these
fights and be ready.

Warren likes life as a front runner.

“It’s a lot easier when you’re on top,” he said. “I’m used to being
on top, so it’s been a different role for me to have to fight my
way up. I’m really happy to have a belt in MMA and be able to get
an opportunity to keep defending it.”

Warren’s mixed martial arts fights have come at featherweight, but
a drop to the 135-pound weight class may be in his future,
especially after he attempts to make the 2012 Olympic wrestling
team at 60 kilograms (132 pounds). He said he will continue to
pursue MMA training while he tries to qualify for the Olympics.

“I’d be a lot more comfortable at 135, but there’s more money for
me at 145,” Warren said. “In four years, I’ll be too old to [try to
make an Olympic team], so the time to push is now. I’ve been lucky
that I’ve had no injuries to keep me from training or keep me off
the mat. We’re confident with what we have going on. I’m still
training at the Olympic Training Center, and I’m focused on that.
I’m still focused on winning in fighting, as well.”